Birmingham City’s attempt to sign Carlos Vicente first emerged in Spain on January 16th.
National sport newspaper Marca initially reported the Championship club had made a substantial offer for the 26-year-old. The details of that offer weren’t revealed, but it was explained Alavés manager Eduardo Coudet didn’t want to lose his player.
Vicente is a right winger who joined the Basque club in the January 2024 transfer market. He cost them €600k from Racing Ferrol, and it was a big move for the attacker. Up until that point his career had consisted of Zaragoza’s B team, Pobla Mafumet, Ejea and Calahorra.
This season, the Birmingham City target has scored nine goals and added three assists from 23 matches.
On January 17th, reliable Basque newspaper El Correo reported Alavés want close to Vicente’s €20m release clause. That felt like a bargaining position.
Inflated transfer fee doesn’t stack up
Alavés have only sold three players for more than €10m in their history, and none of those hit €20m.
Indeed, one of those sales is Javi Moreno moving to AC Milan in July 2001. He’d played five time for Spain’s senior national team in the months leading up to that transfer, hence the price.
The most recent is Joaquín Panichelli, who moved to Strasbourg for €17m in July 2025. Last season, the 23-year-old Argentine striker scored 21 goals and added eight assists in 44 matches. He’s since gone on to score 10 goals for Strasbourg already and been linked, albeit weakly, with a switch to sister club Chelsea.
There’s no serious argument for Carlos Vicente costing similar or even more.
Birmingham City have some hope
Spanish newspaper AS report on Sunday afternoon that Alavés are sticking to that €20m.
AS state: ‘Under other circumstances, the club would consider accepting much smaller payments, but now it cannot afford to lose key players because it would weaken Coudet’s team.’
However, it’s also explained that the club want to bring in their own signings. They want a central defender, a left winger and a striker. To fund all three, it would be assumed a sale is necessary.
Carlos Vicente himself would also likely be keen. He hasn’t had a mega earning career to this point and the move would almost certainly see a big jump in salary.
There’s also the winger’s contractual situation to take into account, because since moving from Racing Ferrol he hasn’t signed a new deal.
Vicente’s contract expires in June 2027, subsequently his value will start to drop in the summer. It will drop even further if the Basque club are relegated, which is a reasonable possibility.
There’s hope for Birmingham City and reason to believe they can get Alavés down from that €20m figure, but this one isn’t going to be easy.
